Chris’s Comments (group member since Feb 01, 2011)

Chris’s comments from the Around the World in Books group.

Mar wrote: "Thanks Laureen, this is excellent! It is really amazing how far we have travelled since you started this group. It's been a real pleasure reading with you and others and exploring all these differe..."

I second this post completely!

Thanks for taking the time to post the summaries Mar, it's really useful. Must have taken the extra day to do, as there are so many!

Yes! Broaden the options a bit...

British humour ... funniest book I've ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

A non-human story... fantastic story-telling Watership Down by Richard Adams (no relation to above Douglas)

Finally got hold of a copy of Purge. Haven't seen such positive reviews for a book from our group for a long time - so will make haste in getting round to reading it!

Wow, sounds like a fascinating country. Looking forward to seeing the pictures, Laureen (and Mar later this year?).

Ah yeah, I keep seeing Arthur and George in charity shops. Would quite like an excuse to read it :)

I'm afraid I can't be of much use with any modern English work - I'm still trying to catch up on all of the old stuff! I would definitely like to read something more current though.

I'm thinking that this month's poll may be rather large... So I'm going to limit myself to three suggestions.

Not sure if this is stretching the boundaries of the group too much, but George Orwell wrote some really interesting essays on Englishness (I prefer his essays to his novels). You can get these online, or there is an anthology called Orwell's England.

I think that Daphne du Maurier's novels are the most quintessentially English that I've read. I'd plump for Jamaica Inn and wouldn't mind reading it again, as I read it when I was about 15.

My final suggestion is Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, which gives a great portrayal of the national character.

Have you read any books by John Irving, Warnie? I think the writing (and quirkiness) feels quite similar

I felt like that for about half the book and then something flipped, and I got a bit annoyed with it. Imagine if he'd written with that quality about something interesting! That said, I am quite tempted to read the next book (I've got the book of the trilogy), but I might wait til I'm in the right mood for it - now I know what to expect from mr Davies!

Hate to say it but I was a tad disappointed in this book. That the author can really write well is apparent from the start - if I had read any chapter on its own, as a short story, I would have loved it. But over the course of the book I found myself getting quite bored with the characters and lack of any tension or mystery in the plot. Things just ... happened... To me this book is the literary equivalent of the film Benjamin Button.

Please can I add:

Purge by Sofi Oksanen
Back on the map: adventures in Newly independent Estonia by Marc Hyman
Diary of a blood donor by Mati Unt

Thanks Shannon... Without even looking at other Estonian books, that's got my vote. Sounds brilliant!

Thanks for posting the summaries of the book, Mar - saves a lot of time clicking back and forth between each books. Good idea!

I'm going to read Fifth Business (because the other book was £15 eek)

Hello everyone, I'd like to add a couple more after a quick Wikipedia search:

No great mischief by alistair Macleod because it looks like a novel closely intertwined with Canadian culture and history, so hopefully we'd learn a lot about the country.

And Sunshine sketches of a little town by Stephen Leacock as on Wikipedia it says "It is generally considered to be one of the most enduring classics of Canadian humorous literature." ... Which sounds good to me!

I'm enjoying the fast-pacedness of this book. It's quite refreshing to have an easy-reading bestseller, after the slightly heavy books we've had recently.

I'm nearing half way and the plot is developing nicely - and Assad is a really interesting character!

A Canadian friend has suggested Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.

Poll's over .... the winner was Jussi Adler-Olsen's The Keeper of Lost Causes (a.k.a Mercy).

Discussion held here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

The group has voted for The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen as this month's book, from Denmark.

Please note that in the UK this is released under the name Mercy. (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...)

Feel free to discuss it here.

The poll is now live. Please vote at http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/57...

thanks

Elizabeth wrote: "....I learned more than I ever wanted to learn but should have learned years ago."

Couldn't agree more!